With the rapid development of MRI technology, coil technology has also taken great strides forward (e.g., phased array coils with 8, 16 or even 32 channels). Coils may be divided into three types according to structure: linear coils, orthogonal coils, and phased array coils. A phased array coil includes multiple linear coils or orthogonal coils, each linear coil or orthogonal coil being a coil element. The phased array coil may receive RF pulses of the main magnetic field from multiple directions at the same time, while there are also multiple data acquisition channels matched thereto.
Referring to FIG. 1, an MRI system includes, for example, an RF coil device 101 and an imaging control device 102. The RF coil device 101 includes multiple coil sets, each coil set further including one or more coil elements 1011. Each coil element 1011 transmits input signals to a coax pin interface 1021 in the imaging control device 102 using RF channels RF(1)-RF(n). The coax pin interface 1021 transmits on/off commands from the imaging control device 102 to the coil elements 1011 using on/off control lines (Tune/Detune) TD(1)-TD(n), thereby controlling the opening/closing and on/off switching of the coil elements 1011. The number n of coil elements 1011 (e.g., the number of RF channels) may not exceed the number k of coax pins in the coax pin interface 1021.